I tried to download some of the gadgets for Aspire V9 when I pick install new gadget I end up at the cloud drive or the external hard drive if that is plugged in but can find the .vgadget file on my computer.

They just download to wherever you've set the default download location to in your browser. If you're using Microsoft Edge you may need to choose to open rather than save as there are some issues with that browser.

I tried what you suggested, the file comes up as a zip file not a vgadget file when I select open I get a notification that this is a winrar file and I have to purchase the software. I checked the gadget page and it states that it is updated for aspire v9 but any file I select is a zip file. I do have some gadgets that came with the upgrade but I can't download the ones off the gadget web page.

Windows handles Zip files as standard. Sounds like you've had a trial of WinRAR on your computer that has now expired. If you remove it then Windows will take over the handling of zip files again.

However all the gadgets for V9 should be downloading as vgadget files as far as I'm aware. How do you know they are downloading as zip files and not vgadget files? Can you see the zip extension on the end of the file name? A vgadget file is a type of compressed file so it might be that WinRAR is somehow seeing that and thinking it needs to handle it.

Try starting Aspire, going to the Gadgets menu and choosing the Install New Gadget option to load one of the files you've downloaded. That will bypass any windows association issues.

I found and uninstalled the WINRAR app then downloaded the gear maker gadget which I checked to make sure the it was updated for Version 9 when I clicked on the download bar the file come up as a zip extension file. I then clicked on install gadget from Aspire, navigate to the spot where I saved the gadget and the folder shows nothing. When I open the folder outside of Aspire all the information is there but there is no vgadet extension. I'm not sure what is going on, I even downloaded and reinstalled Aspire 9 with the same results.

After I finished the reply I thought I would go back to the gear gadget file I downloaded and change the file extension name to .vgadget which I got the warning the program could become unstable but I figured if it did I would delete it. It worked, Aspire recognized it file and installed the gadget. I'm still laughing about how that worked.

Which browser are you using? I've tried every major one (I have several installed for web site testing) and I can't get any of them to download the files as zip rather than vgadget.

Nothing strange about the renaming working. VGadget files are zip files but if they were named as such it wouldn't be possible to install a gadget by double clicking on it as the windows file handler would load the zip file handler instead.

I'm using microsoft edge. I have renamed file extsions in the past some times they work some times they don't. I clicked on the file to rename it then removed the zip extsion and replaced it with vgadget.

Edge is a very strange browser with all sorts of issues. Up until recently it wouldn't download gadget files at all. Now (not sure if Vectric have done this or not as a workaround) it's downloading files that should have a vgadget extension as _vgadget rather than .vgadget.

Personally I'd avoid using it until they've fixed the myriad bugs with it and use Chrome or Firefox instead.

I'm an Aspire 8.5/Chrome user and downloaded the Box_Creator_Gadget and the Chamfer_Gadget, both of which are .vgadget files in my Downloads directory, and both of which should work in Aspire 8.5. When I double click the downloaded file, I get the "How do you want to open this file" pop-up.

I tried downloading the Dovetail_Creator gadget again because I know it installed a few months ago without any issues, and I'm seeing the same thing now as opposed to an executable file. What am I missing here?

The vgadget version gadgets only work with version 9 onwards. For version 8.5 you need to use the other gadget site which is linked from the front page of the main one. It's http://gadgets.vectric.com/V8/library.html

This morning I have struggled to download and install the Resizing Circles gadget. Initially a file was downloaded by Windows Explorer with a .zip extension (a 25KB file). That .zip file was not seen from the pre-installed Aspire 9 "Install New Gadget ..." gadget. I tried extracting it and looked for a proper file to install - that did not bear fruit. Using different browsers (Firefox, Chrome, and Edge) resulted in download of files with .exe extensions. Those are not seen from the pre-installed Aspire 9 "Install New Gadget ..." gadget, either. Windows Explorer is now downloading a file of different size than earlier today - now with a .exe file extension (108 KB files). Renaming the 108 KB .exe file to have a .vgadget extension enables it to be seen from the "Install New Gadget ..." gadget, but attempting to install it results in an "Failed to extract the vgadget archive." error. Renaming the earlier 25KB .zip file and trying to install it was successful. Circling back to check all this, I used Windows Explorer to download the Resizing Circles gadget. This time I find a 108KB .exe file in my Downloads folder ... Decided to try installing the Fluter gadget. Downloaded with Windows explorer. A 214 KB .exe file was downloaded. (Curiously, I still have a 131KB Fluter_Gadget_Install.zip file that was downloaded a few hours earlier ...) Renamed that 214KB .exe file with a .vgadget extension. The renamed file was seen by "Install New Gadget ..." gadget. Attempt to install results in an "Failed to extract the vgadget archive." error.

Any suggestions for how I can get a .vgadget file to download (not a .zip nor a .exe)?

Any idea why I am getting files of different size and different extensions downloaded (within hours of each other)?

This is the site for V9 - http://gadgets.vectric.com/ - this downloads as vgadget files which can be loaded from the gadgets menu or by double clicking.

Using the Edge browser in Windows 10 is not recommended (by me) as it doesn't download the vgadget files correct. I use Chrome and have no issues. I've just download the Circle Resize gadget and it download and installed as a vgadget file no problem.